


takes one to know one (you're a cowboy like me)

by prvncess



Category: Powerpuff Girls
Genre: #hotgirlshit, F/M, I think it's fluffy?, but really blossom is a pimp and brick is a simp (:, i swear it's pretty and fluffy, man-eater!Blossom, oblivious!Brick, okay the story is alot more serious and prose-filled than my crackhead tags, this is a reversal of the common fandom trope that brick has a harem of hoes, this is just an excuse to write blossom as a classy pimp
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:00:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28061304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prvncess/pseuds/prvncess
Summary: "When it came to Blossom Utonium, you either shaped up or get left behind in the dust.Because she honestly deserved nothing less than the best. Even Brick understood that."or, the one where Blossom is the one with hoes and Brick pines, except no one tells him.
Relationships: Brick/Blossom Utonium
Comments: 6
Kudos: 36





	takes one to know one (you're a cowboy like me)

**Author's Note:**

> okay, if you actually clicked on this story after my fatal inability to write a serious summary for this story: i love you. 
> 
> I promise the tone of this story is the extreme opposite of my tags/summary, I just haven't taken anything seriously since COVID started. Forgive me. Unless you wanted crackhead energy, in which case, this may not be the fic for you but I think it's pretty cute? It might make you smile, which I really hope it does. 
> 
> The motivation to write this actually came from another PPG fic that I had posted on [fanfiction.net](https://www.fanfiction.net/s/7273686/1/A-Look-Into-The-Daily-Lives-of-Our-Beloved-Couples) (hello darkness, my old friend) back in fucking 2012 or some shit so it was, admittedly, pretty poorly written. _That_ fic was inspired by Outlaw by Selena Gomez & The Scene (man, I'm really just exposing myself here but I will forever stan my queen, our lord and savior, Selly G) and it featured the common fandom trope where Brick is the popular player who has girls fawning over him, and Blossom is like, "nah, fuck those hoes, I'm your wife." 
> 
> Anyways, that song came up on my playlist after a really long time, and now that I'm not, like, _13_ , I had a slightly different perspective on the song. And after re-reading the fic, I definitely was interested in playing with the idea that Blossom was the so-called player who had a lot of boyfriends and Brick was the one who sees through her. Especially because there's no way that our beautiful, accomplished leader Blossom Utonium _didn't_ have a line of boys tripping over themselves to date her. She's a catch!! And I really liked that idea that her levelheadedness translated to her ending relationships quickly because she didn't tolerate any bullshit. But she's of course still soft and wants to be loved. 
> 
> anyway, that's my very long explanation for this story that's definitely longer than the story itself but hey! there are no rules here! love that about fic. 
> 
> inspired by outlaw by selena gomez & the scene, souvenir by selena gomez & dance again by selena gomez (we love a queen who stays relatable across eras).
> 
> title is from cowboy like me by taylor swift (did i use another song for the title other than the two whose lines heavily inspired some of the prose for this story? yes. the vibe was right)

Crimson eyes watched with fleeting interest as his pink counterpart pressed a kiss to her current flame's hand. The new guy smiled at her gentle affection, cheeks dimpled, and presses a returning kiss to the side of her head. The two continue walking across campus, a picture-perfect couple.

Brick scoffed and took a drag of his cigarette. Dimples would be gone by the end of the week, and Butch would have to wash Boomer's car for him. It's the way these things went with Blossom. The obnoxious, bossy little five-year-old had grown up to be quite the man-eater to everyone's surprise. 

But then again, everyone else wasn't made to be her counterpart. They didn't have the resounding joy of having an innately keen understanding of the inner mechanics of her sanctimonious little head. 

Blossom Utonium was a force of nature, she'd eat up any normal guy for breakfast. Having grown up in the spotlight, with the weight of this unlucky city on her petite shoulders coupled with the responsibility of a leader steeling her back, Blossom was an ice-cold bitch, to put it bluntly. It'd take a special breed of masochism to survive a relationship with the pink puff. 

Of course, Brick understands that "ice-cold bitch" is just the tip of the iceberg with the pink Puff, a catch-all that feebly attempts to capture the levelheadedness that was molded into her skin, for better or for worse. Being calm in the face of a storm was great in the heat of a battle when the city skyline is nothing but fire and her team of superpowered beings is nearly on their knees, but--

It's a bit of a buzzkill when it comes to relationships. 

Blossom had a tendency to cut and run at the first sign of trouble. One red flag and either a white flag is raised or there's nothing but a pink ribbon and the faint scent of vanilla on his pillowcase. 

When it came to Blossom Utonium, you either shaped up or get left behind in the dust. 

Because she honestly deserved nothing less than the best. Even Brick understood that. 

The same girl had taken endless beatings for the livelihood of Townsville, endured brutal public beratings when her plans went awry, navigated layered social interactions with her peers with whom she was both duty-bound and superior. If she was ice-cold to a fault, it was because the world had demanded it of her, and she wasn't one to fail to rise to the occasion. 

No, Blossom Utonium lived in the eye of her own storm and commanded the tidal waves of her affection and wrath with clinical precision. Mere mortal men drowned. 

Brick takes one last drag, his throat burning slightly at the acrid smoke. As he exhales, he can feels his lungs stutter which is mildly alarming for a firebreather. He drops the cig to the ground, crushing it under his boot. He really should stop smoking, Chemical X or not. It's a nasty little habit.

* * *

The next time he sees Blossom, she does indeed have a new boy toy on her arm. This one is built like some all-American quarterback, well-muscled, blond and blue-eyed. American Joe looks like Butch and Boomer went and had a manchild-baby. 

Brick drains the rest of his beer after that thought. 

They're are all gathered at Boomer and Bubble's townhouse for a "family" barbeque. Butch and Boomer were arguing over the grill while the Professor was sneakily trying to switch the marinated chicken for another bowl with probably tamer chicken. Butch always put at least half the container of red chili powder on his chicken for no good reason. Buttercup was grumpily setting the table while Bubbles happily drank her mimosa off to the side. Brick furrowed his brows at the sight until he noticed a blooming bruise on Buttercup's forearm too small to be from his boisterous brother. He looked back at the smiling blue puff and shudders. 

She was one scary chick. 

Turning his attention back to the latest flavor of the week, Brick can't help but grudgingly admire the tenacity in his counterpart. 

She still hadn't given up on finding love, throwing her heart through every brick wall. 

He can see it in the way her rose-colored eyes stared up at American Joe with a rose-colored joy when he whispered something in her ear that made her let out a breathy giggle. And when American Joe cups her jaw tenderly, Blossom looked everything like a flower blossoming under the loving ministrations of her paramour. 

Something in Brick's cynical, shriveled heart twisted violently at the exchange. 

The scornful part of his mind sneered, wondering how her brilliant mind couldn't see that all these normal, boring, men were far beneath her? That the average man couldn't hope to caress her flame without burning himself? A lifetime living at the mercy of the general populace's scorn as he and his brothers tried to redeem themselves for their childhood of crime had long since taught Brick about not only the cruelty of man but also the sheer oblivion with which they delude themselves. 

It's no wonder Blossom went through men as fast as she did when humans were so prone to the innate bumbling of the human condition. 

When American Joe presses a deep kiss to Blossom's smiling lips, Brick turns away, his fingers nearly shattering the beer bottle he's been nurturing. 

Fools, all of them. 

* * *

When he finds Blossom skating on the frozen pond by her old preschool in the middle of the night, he lets himself take a moment to appreciate the beauty of the scene in front of him. 

It's not often someone gets the opportunity to glance upon Blossom when her guard is down, her spirit freed. She glides gracefully across the ice, her legs swiveling elegantly as she pivots from side to side across the ice, just slicing through the air. Every once in a while, she'll do a small twirly or jump as the momentum builds as if letting off excess energy that had built from her speedy gliding, her form ethereal against the moonlit ice. 

A small smile graces her lips, and the air is silent except for the swish of her skates against the ice. Nothing exists at this moment except Blossom, and even she is nothing but a mere physical manifestation of her soul.

It's in this moment, that something deep inside of Brick yearns to hold her against him, let their bodies press together as if the only thing standing between their souls were their rib cages holding naught but stolen breaths.

The feeling feels so integral to Brick, it's as if he is nothing else. He was created only to feel like this. 

When her eyes open and meet his, when her smile broadens as she takes him in, he's eternally grateful for everything he's ever done in his life that led him to be here in this moment right now. 

The road to redemption for him and his brothers had been one of the hardest things he's ever done, but standing here and not being completely hers is probably torture. 

(Though, if he's being honest with himself, he was always hers from the moment he popped out of that grimy toilet the first time. His life had always been defined by being her counterpart, hers.)

Brick tried not to be in the habit of lying to himself so it was a bit of shock when he realizes he's in love with her, standing here on the outskirts of this cruddy little lake. He usually spends a great deal of energy reflecting and analyzing his emotions to make sure they don't get the best of him (something he has in common with his lovely counterpart). It's jarring that something as monumental as this could have slipped by his careful eye, but also at the same time--

It feels like something he's always known, this feeling of being hers. It just has a name now, a new language that he can speak. 

She glides over to him, and she takes his breath away, another trophy for her to keep. 

When she reaches him, her cheeks are flushed from the biting cold, and he wants to bring his palms to cup her face and warm them up, making her flush deeply as the blood rushes under his fingertips. 

Instead, he shoves his hands into his pockets and lifts an eyebrow at her. He can play it cool. He was a notorious supervillain, for Pete’s sake. 

"A little nighttime skating, Pinky?" he drawls slyly, looking up at the full moon that hangs lazily above them. 

She shrugs, "I needed some air to collect my thoughts, you know?" When he brings his eyes back down to Earth to meets hers, she's smiling like she's sharing a secret between just the two of them, and he thinks, yeah, he knows. 

Because if there's anything in this crazy, chaotic world that he knows for sure, it's Blossom Utonium. 

She and him, they're cut from the same cloth. 

He smirks and tugs at an errant hair that's escape from her winter hat. "What's on your mind, Blossy?" 

It's still a little mind-boggling that they're at a place now where she's probably his closest friend, and he's definitely in her circle of close confidantes. But he's grateful that he gets to speak with her like this, to get a glimpse into her beautiful little head. 

Blossom sighs, turning away from him to stare at the ice, clutching her arms. "Julien and I broke up last week." 

Brick's heart tightens at the news, for more reasons than he expects. He's elated she's freed from yet another disappointing paramour but heartbroken by the pain on her face. If only she'd stop wasting her time and--

She turns back to him abruptly, pinning him with her saccharine eyes like nails on a cross. "Skate with me." He can tell she meant it as a question but it comes off more like a command. 

He blinks, "I don't have skates."

Blossom also blinks, then dumbly looks at his Docs as if she, too, is just realizing his lack of proper skatewear. His mind scrambles to try and find a way to get on the ice with her but his fire powers are of no help in this situation, and he can make metal appear out of nowhere. 

Then her eyes widen and she smiles victoriously, snapping her fingers and a pair of ice skates made of ice appears in her hands. She smiles at him and holds the ice ice skates out to him, "Problem solved."

He chuckles, taking the skates from her and slipping them on. "Problem solved," he agrees. After the skates are snugly on his feet (surprisingly comfortable for shoes made of fucking ice), she holds her hand out and he takes it. Together, they skate out onto the ice. 

Together, they glide and slide across the tiny pond. At first, they're just gliding from one end to another, but then, without speaking, she leaps into a twirling spin and he pulls her back down to him, and they begin to dance. He's never been one for much figure skating, but Blossom does most of the semi-fancy tricks, and all he has to do is anchor her or pull her back to him. It's a beautiful dance they weave across the ice as their bodies pull apart and come back together again. 

Every time she leaves his arms to spin, it's automatic for him to reach for her, to catch her fall, and ensconce her snugly in his arms. 

They go on like this for what seems like an eternity, but Brick just lets himself enjoy being like this with her.

Blossom lets go of his hand to speed forward, and he chases after her. As she nears the middle of the pond, she kicks off into a twirl as he gets within arm's reach. She lands crouched on her skates, twirling as she rises to a stand. As she spins, he reaches for her and she grabs onto his hand, and he pulls her against his chest as her momentum slows. She crashes against him but he stables his hips to keep them upright as they glide back with the force of her impact. 

They glide like that for a moment, her eyes locked on his and his eyes locked on her as they glide back across the pond. 

She's the first to break the silence. "I came out here because I felt like I needed to run after the break-up." It's an odd statement considering she can fly, but he understands the notion nonetheless. He gets the need to run after yet another disappointment, after another person has let you down, to just run away and remember why you tried so hard in the first place. 

He gets that need to protect yourself when all you wanted to do was love someone. 

He cups her face in his hands as her arms fall to his waist. Her eyes drop to gaze at his lips, and right before he catches her lips in a deep kiss, he tells her, "Stop running. I'm here now." 

**Author's Note:**

> if you made it to the end, thank you! you're a gem, and i appreciate you endlessly! drop me a comment with your thoughts on the piece! i really love reading you guys' opinions on the story!
> 
> don't question the mechanics of the ice ice-skates though. there are no rules here, if cinderella can do it, so can i.


End file.
